


Circling the Drain

by Tarlan



Category: Chronicles of Riddick (2004), Chronicles of Riddick Series
Genre: Community: smallfandomfest, First Kiss, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-01-08
Updated: 2011-01-08
Packaged: 2017-10-14 14:02:59
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,302
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/149949
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Tarlan/pseuds/Tarlan
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The whole galaxy was circling the drain, but Riddick could care less.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Circling the Drain

**Author's Note:**

> Written for smallfandomfest FEST08

When they made him the head of their ghost army, Riddick figured he'd just play along. He didn't have anything better to do and it beat living on scraps on some ice world in the middle of nowhere. He'd only gone to UV6--wasted five years of his life--to protect **her** but Jack--Kyra-- was dead and so was the Imam. He'd already ghosted those that killed them, and that left him with no more scores to settle anywhere. As he approached the throne room he could hear raised voices, recognizing the snake-like quality of Dame Vaako as she hissed her objections to her husband. He couldn't blame her. She'd seen her ambition crumble to dust when her husband fell to his knees rather than striking Riddick down where he sat.

Riddick couldn't help but admit that Vaako would have won that battle. Vaako was younger, more agile, and his religion left him no room for compassion--and he had not just gone ten rounds with a half-dead genocidal maniac.

It made Riddick wonder why Vaako hadn't struck at him while he was at his weakest. Riddick didn't plan to give him another opportunity.

"He is a breeder still. He has no care for our religion or for the campaign. We will not reach UnderVerse if he is left to guide us." Her voice lowered but Riddick was close enough to hear her softer words. "You would be a greater leader. You should have struck while he was weak and taken your rightful place as Lord Marshal."

"Enough!" Vaako bellowed, and Riddick could hear the anger in his voice that proved that Necromongers were not that much different to normal humans, holding the same hard emotion. For all their words of pain leading to serenity, he'd met only a few that acted like brain-washed zombies and those were mostly in the lower ranks. Cannon fodder. For a moment he had thought Kyra was like them but she proved her mind and loyalty was stronger than their pain conditioning, and paid for that with her life.

Riddick stepped into the large chamber, automatically noting the positions of everyone present, and there was quite a party going on with four dames and fifteen high-ranking Necromongers standing around the throne. Vaako had turned immediately, lips tightened into a thin line of anger, and he tilted his head respectfully as Riddick approached the throne.

Riddick addressed his comment to Vaako, keeping his words low yet audible. "Trouble with the natives?"

He felt the indignation of the others present, aware that his words would sound disrespectful to them but he liked to rattle their cages to see if any of them had any fighting spirit left in them. One took a step forward but a glance from Riddick had him scurrying back. Dame Vaako smiled seductively as if she hadn't been bad mouthing him only moments before. Her long-nailed finger trailed over his biceps as she glided around him with almost as much grace as an Elemental. Classy lady.

"Many have remarked that you have not yet gone through the purification process."

"And?"

"They wonder if you are...fit to be our leader."

"Purification process."

Commander Scales stepped forward. "We all started as something else but allowed our pain to be taken away, and purified."

"And you think I don't understand pain?"

Riddick smiled dangerously and Scales retreated a step. He recalled the words of the Purifier on Crematoria, and of Kyra here in this very room before her death. _It hurts at first, but then..._

He rounded on Vaako, "So what do you think?"

Vaako remained silent much to the annoyance of his dame, but Riddick didn't need to hear the words to know Vaako's thoughts. This warrior had put a lot of trust in Riddick's ability to lead the Necromongers, putting the needs of his people before his own, and depriving himself of the glory of becoming their Lord Marshal.

"Then lead on, Vaako." Riddick extended his arm as a gesture, seeing Vaako's eyes widen slightly in surprise.

"My Lord," he stated, before turning towards the closest corridor used for the purification process. The new Purifier followed on behind Riddick and the others behind him as the small procession made its way silently towards the figures hanging almost lifelessly before them. Vaako moved along the row but turned part way down towards a smaller alcove that contained a single purification machine. He stood to one side and indicated for Riddick to enter. The Purifier followed and hooked Riddick up with all the skill of someone who had done this innumerable times before this day.

Riddick kept his focus on Vaako as the large needles pierced either side of his neck. The pain was excruciating but Riddick clamped down hard on the agony, determined not to cry out. He saw Vaako's lips quirk in acknowledgment before Vaako turned away towards the others.

"Go."

They filed away immediately, if reluctantly, but Vaako stayed behind, turning to face him once more. For the next three days, every time Riddick opened his eyes even a crack, Vaako was there watching over him. As the days passed Riddick began to understand Kyra's words. The pain seemed to echo through more than just his body. It seeped into his mind, sliding into all those old memories of emotional pain and numbing them until, eventually, all that remained was the physical pain of the purification process, and even that began to fade into insignificance.

When he opened his eyes again, Vaako smiled at him and nodded. He saw Vaako touch a panel and the needles pulled back.

"Impressive. Most succumb within a day."

"You haven't been standing here all this time, have you? You look like shit, Vaako." His voice was rusty from disuse but Vaako's eyes glinted in amusement.

Two of the purifier caste unlinked him from the purification device but Riddick shook off their attempts to support his weight. He felt as weak as a newborn kitten, taking a moment to regain his equilibrium, but he was determined to walk unaided. Riddick knew he'd be no good in a fight right now so he hoped no one had planned any surprise assassination attempts while he was in a weakened state. It occurred to him then that Vaako could have killed him at any time over the last three days but Vaako had probably guarded him instead.

 _You keep what you kill_ resounded in Riddick's thoughts and maybe Vaako had a vested interest in keeping him alive so he could kill him personally and take the throne, rather than see it fall to another even less worthy--like Scales. It would explain a lot.

Vaako followed him along the corridor to the Lord Marshal's quarters, only pausing when he reached the threshold. Riddick waved him on in and immediately got the impression that Vaako had never stepped foot inside these rooms before this day. It made sense. The old Lord Marshal would have kept this space private, allowing only servants and concubines--dames--to enter.

A filled glass was set before him and he stared at it for a moment before deciding poison really wouldn't be Vaako's style. The liquid soothed his raw throat.

"So now?" Riddick asked.

"Now we set course for the threshold where you will look into UnderVerse and become a holy half-dead like the Lord Marshal before you."

"Sounds like a plan." That extra ghost ability would come in useful the next time he had mercs on his tail.

It took weeks to reach the threshold and Riddick used it as an excuse to bypass several systems teeming with life, leaving them untouched--though part of him itched to set the ghost army free as he saw the details rise on the screens. The Necromongers were the destroyers of worlds and it would be so easy to fall into their religion, especially as he had no feelings either way for the humans inhabiting those systems. If they lived or died was of no consequence to him. Or at least it had been of no consequence once but he had allowed a few people to get under his skin: Caroline Fry, the Imam...and Kyra. They had forced him to reconnect with the rest of the human race and it was hard going back to the way he was before the Hunter-Gratzner crash-landed on that dark world full of monsters. There were even a few among the Necromongers that stirred his interest in human life. Vaako, for one, though Riddick had yet to decide if he wanted to kill him or fuck him.

As he watched Vaako cross the Necropolis towards him, Riddick was caught once more by the powerful build of the Necromonger commander and the way he moved with the grace of a feline predator. But it wasn't just the physical attributes that attracted Riddick to his First Among Commanders. It was the intelligence of the man and the intensity of his passion. Vaako turned that passion to every part of his existence and Riddick was both surprised and strangely pleased that the Necromonger way had not smothered that fire.

Riddick knew his interest was returned for he had heard Vaako's passionate defense of him on numerous occasions, and he had seen the way Vaako's eyes followed him around a room. Many a time Riddick had seen Vaako's dame hiss in anger when she could not pull Vaako's attention back to her own undeniable beauty, and seen Vaako's anger at her attempt. She was losing her grip on her consort.

Kill him or fuck him. By now Riddick knew which of those options he preferred, and it wasn't the one that ended in Vaako's death.

As they approached the threshold, Vaako helped Riddick prepare for his journey and he wondered if Vaako had second thoughts over his decision to let Riddick live and become Lord Marshal. Certainly Riddick could think of none who were superior to Vaako though Commander Scalp Taker thought differently.

Wearing full armor adorned with the effigies of the tortured Covu, and with a cloak of the deepest blue placed around his shoulders, Riddick felt the full weight of his responsibility for the first time. If he went through with this then there was a chance that he would no longer be the same Richard B. Riddick that had spent half his life either in slam or being chased down by mercs. He would be Lord Marshal Riddick, sworn to lead the Necromongers into UnderVerse. The whole galaxy was circling the drain long before he sat down on that throne but Riddick knew that what he saw today would decide whether or not he would be the one to stop it all going to hell.

His ship was readied and he prepared to board but, at the last moment, Riddick made a decision that he knew might have far reaching effect on the life of every living human.

"Vaako."

"My Lord?"

"You get to go with me."

"Only the Lord Marshal may look--"

"Don't recall seeing any rule cast in stone." Riddick recalled some of the history, of Covu taking his successor, Oltovm the Builder, to the threshold and both of them gazing upon it before Covu strode through, never to be seen again in this 'verse.

"It is implied--"

"Been through the justice system on a number of worlds, and implied don't cut it. Rules are what you make of them, Vaako, and they can be broken." He smiled mischievously. "Anyway, it said only _A_ Lord Marshal not only _THE_ Lord Marshal."

"I am not a Lord Marshal."

"Neither was Oltovm the Builder when he first gazed on UnderVerse by Covu's side." Riddick could see that Vaako was impressed that he had recalled that piece of history, and then Riddick's words sank in.

"You are making me your successor?"

"Guess I am."

"Then...you mean to go into UnderVerse."

"Maybe. Maybe not."

Vaako looked cute when he was confused, with lines furrowing between his eyes but Riddick could see intrigue lighting him from inside and knew that Vaako's resolve was weakening; he would sate his curiosity. As Vaako followed him inside the smaller ship, Riddick could hear the murmurs of voices growing louder across the flight bay. Some disapproved while others saw history being made but none stopped them.

A little later, with Vaako standing by his side, Riddick watched as the portal opened and they gazed into the unimaginable beauty of UnderVerse. The urge to simply walk through--as Covu did all those years before--was strong but Riddick felt Vaako's hand clasp around his forearm, holding him back. He felt the power of something entering him, filling him, seeping deeper than into bone and muscle. He turned away from the splendor of the dark stars and ribbons of exotic gases filling the void beyond and reached for the beauty of the awed man standing beside him. When he leaned in to kiss the full lips, Riddick felt his soul reach out first, meeting Vaako's astral being. His senses reeled at the electrifying shock of that first kiss on the astral plane before their physical lips touched. Souls entwined as arms embraced, the kiss deepening until all his being was wrapped around Vaako both physically and spiritually.

When they finally pulled apart Riddick knew he had left a piece of his soul inside Vaako and had gained a piece of Vaako in return. Maybe the whole galaxy was circling the drain but Riddick really didn't care. What waited for them beyond the threshold was a promise of a better life than the one he had suffered in this 'verse.

With a wicked grin, Riddick flicked his eyes back to UnderVerse in question, and as one they stepped through together.

END


End file.
